Polio still grave concern in Afghanistan

17/03/2018

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Report recently said that two fresh polio cases were detected confirming the number to reach five in some provinces of the country.

Local reports said two cases of wild polio virus were registered in Shah Wali Kot district of southern Kandahar and Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar provinces recently, bringing to five the nationwide number of the polio virus cases in 2018.

On Monday, the ministry launched a five-day mass polio vaccination campaign across the country which will wrap up later Friday, according to the ministry of public health quoted by media.

According to the source, the children who unfortunately would suffer permanent disabilities had never been vaccinated against polio virus.

The cases were reportedly detected in families that always rejected anti-polio vaccination and never allowed any health volunteers to vaccinate their children.

The denial of the families could be an alarm to all parents that kids’ paralysis is real and a serious threat, as the ministry said five cases of paralysis have been registered in the country, this year.

Currently, in the country, an anti-polio drive is going on and it would cover around a million children under five to be vaccinated as the only preventable way.

Afghanistan is one of the three countries of the world in which polio is still affecting children, with Pakistan and Nigeria as the second and third.

The virus could rapidly transfer and the only preventable way was vaccination and the latest anti-polio campaign launched by tens of thousands of dedicated polio workers has delivered oral polio vaccines to over 9.9 million children.

Security problems, such as growing insurgency and conflicts have been hindering the efforts to stamp the infectious disease out in Afghanistan.

The government of Afghanistan and the relevant anti-polio immunization bodies have time and again announced that children under five of their ages should be vaccinated and the efforts were going on to reach the virus to nil.

But, families for the most part, failed to allow the drive practiced on their children in many remote areas, mostly insurgency overwhelming security of the people as they believe, the plan was a conspiracy against their health and they were working in favor of a ban in some regions.

Religious scholars have also the responsibility to publicize anti-polio campaign in the areas, the residents are not aware or have less awareness about the harms of polio and the negative consequence of their ban to the vaccination drive.

Militants, including the Taliban who are still opposing the government should cooperate with the process to get success by launching nationwide anti-polio drive.